James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Let's finish yesterday's post about reconstructing the feathered dinosaur Mei long. For a pose as unusual as this, I knew I had to build a maquette to understand the three dimensional spiraling and overlapping of the form. Where should that tucked leg go? And what should happen with the tail? At this angle, you can't see the tucked leg, but it's there.

The maquette was made over a wire armature from three kinds of Fimo: soft, regular, and effect. The last kind fires to a translucent and flexible material. I then painted it in acrylic.

As I built and painted the maquette, I checked a lot of reference photos from my physical and digital scrap files. I came up with dozens of pictures of birds (aquatic birds, songbirds, and many others) in this classic pose. Photos of actual backlit birds helped with edge lighting and color corona.

Here's the final oil painting, which appears in the current issue of Ranger Rick magazine.

I run a podcast about comics and sequential art at the Savannah College of Art and Design. I am a faculty member there. I also teach a conceptual Maquette Design class. I was wondering if you would be willing to do an interview on our podcast? I have read your blog for a number of years and always send my students your way since you are informative, instructional, and more importantly hilariously inventive. Either way please let me know. Thank you! jlarison@scad.edu

I agree with Erik, this is my favorite RR painting so far. I like that little "starburst" of light near the head. As always, it's fascinating to see the process behind the painting.

And Jim, in case you missed this, grab your checkbook(s) and make a quick trip to Las Vegas. A casino is auctioning off its dinosaur skeletons. The ultimate armatue for maquettes! There must be room back in Rhinebeck. There are photos at:

Hey, thanks, everybody. The Fimo can be mixed with Sculpey without any problem, and you can mix the different kinds of Fimo together in the same sculpt.

The one to experiment with is the Effect Fimo. Its flexibility and translucency is quite nice because you can do fine forms like tendrils or fins. When it cures, it's not brittle, but rather quite flexible.

This is also my Favourite RR illustration. I love how much fully saturated colour you've enfused into the image - the red in the distance & the green/blues in the FG shadows.

p.s. does anyone want to help out a Gurney fan who happens to live in New Zealand? I need a contact that would be willing to get the new book shipped to their address, then forwarded to my address. Any help would be much appreciated. You can reach me through send.andrew.mail@gmail.com